Sayulita Writers Workshops

In this, our second year,  the Sayulita Writers Workshops offers aspiring and professional writers an opportunity to do something unusual and exciting during their vacation time here in lively, sunny, and colorful Sayulita: study writing and photography with a couple of local residents with years of practical, professional experience.

We'll work with you, schedule-wise (see below): I teach the writing classes myself, with help from my wife, photographer Donna Day. We've done a lot of work together and now we're going to teach together, offering two classes: writing and shooting on travel assignments , and writing and shooting architectural and interior design stories.  Working with another artist can be challenging and rewarding. But you have to know how to do it. Some of it is instinct, but some things can be learned. We're here to teach those things.

My writing-only classes will cover two fields: first, writing fiction from fact, that is to say, how can you take the material of your own experience and make a story--a fictional story out of it? Everybody has a good story to tell, and while memoirs have taken center stage of late, I find transforming personal experiences into fiction is equally or even more rewarding. Stories! Fiction! An alternative reality! It can be done and its a load of fun, because you get to rewrite history.

The other workshop will be on travel writing.  Whether for print or the web, travel writing has its own set of demands. Some of them need to be learned, and thus can be taught. I'm going to concentrate on the fundamentals--how to go to a place and get the story. And then--if you have the time and skill and a good editor, you can add color and make the story into something more than what we call in the business a "service" piece. Service pieces exist to tell people how much the hotel room costs and where to rent the surfboard. They need to be written and I can show you how to go about it--and  go beyond it.

Well,  those of us who live here and love this town are hoping that you will recognize the sweetness of Sayulita, take what is after all not much of a risk, and come on down. Sayulita is a peaceful, charming, and welcoming place, far safer than most American beach towns. And what a great place to hang out and write between classes! Sayulita is one of the great Mexican beach towns.

The Classes

Writing Fiction from Fact

Taught by Justin Henderson

Travel Writing Basics

Taught by Justin Henderson

Writing and Shooting on Travel Assignments

Taught by Justin Henderson and Donna Day

Writing and Shooting Architecture and Interiors

Taught by Justin Henderson and Donna Day

Workshop Schedule

ALL CLASS SCHEDULES WILL BE DETERMINED BY THE STUDENTS. IF YOU ARE COMING TO SAYULITA FOR A WEEK OR TWO, WE WILL SCHEDULE THE CLASS TO MEET YOUR NEEDS. THE ONLY REQUIREMENT IS A MINIMUM OF TWO STUDENTS PER CLASS.

Prices

THE COST OF EACH TWO DAY, SIX HOUR WORKSHOP IS $250 PER STUDENT. FOR GROUPS OF FOUR OR MORE (MAXIMUM 8 PER CLASS) THE COST IS $200 PER STUDENT.

CLASSES WILL CONSIST OF TWO THREE HOUR SESSIONS ON CONSECUTIVE DAYS FROM 9 AM UNTIL NOON.

Teachers

DONNA DAY

You can check out Donna's work on elsayulero.com--she does the weekly "Photo" column, and also at her website, donnaday.com.

JUSTIN HENDERSON

You can check out Justin Henderson's work at elsayulero.com, where I write the weekly "Surf" column, and I also have a number of books for sale on Amazon via Kindle. I've written seven mysteries and had three published in trade paperback before putting them up on Amazon last year. I also wrote about a dozen books on architecture and interior design while living in New York and Seattle, and wrote and edited Fodor's Guide to Costa Rica for the years 1995 to 2005.